Clinging together: Mercosur's ambitious external agenda, its internal crisis, and the future of regional economic integration in South America

Abstract

The article examines the linkages between Mercosur's search for a new agenda and its ambitious external agenda. It argues that mainstream IR theories are of little help to predict the future of Mercosur, and that the bloc's prospects for survival depend on the potential of class struggle at the domestic level to 'turn the tables' against neoliberal globalization, opening up the possibility of an autonomous South American strategy for development. Using a neo-Gramscian approach, the article criticizes both the excessive optimism of those who argue that a 'reconfigured' Mercosur will be able to endure in the brave new world of globalization and the excessive pessimism of those who argue that Mercosur is just an aspect of neoliberal globalization that only serves to incorporate more thoroughly the Southern Cone countries in the world capitalist system. Without internal consolidation and the strengthening of subregional institutions the external agenda cannot indefinitely guarantee Mercosur's survival, and is no substitute for facing head on the fundamental problems of the internal agenda, the only way of truly 'relaunching' Mercosur. In the absence of a serious commitment to do so, external negotiations, and the addition of more associate members may dilute the bloc as a customs union, forcing it to abandon the project of creating an EU-like common market.